CAROLYN CHASE GETS DOWN TO EARTHFAIR

Carolyn Chase and crew of volunteers plan to welcome up to 60,000 this year

Carolyn Chase’s search for a way to help the environment in 1990 launched what has become a regional legacy.

That year, she planned San Diego County’s first EarthFair, which drew an estimated 80,000 people to Balboa Park to celebrate conservation, recycling and environmental activism. More than two decades and 1 million visitors later, she still heads up the park-packing event.

Chase and her crew of 300 volunteers plan to welcome up to 60,000 visitors for this year’s fair, which will take place Sunday in the same location.

She said the goal is to connect people with a broad range of local organizations, businesses, agencies and religious groups working to improve the environment. About 250 exhibitors plan to participate at this year’s EarthFair, from the American Cetacean Society to Zero Waste San Diego.

“I was always interested in the environment, and I was doing computer science to make a living. So I began to use computer science to save the environment,” Chase said.

She and her husband, Chris, the Web designer for EarthFair, started automating registration for the event internally before the Internet came into wide use, then went paperless by the mid-1990s. They work from their Pacific Beach home, which features decking made from sustainably grown bamboo. This year, Chase splurged on a hand-painted rain barrel made from a recycled olive keg.

Chase recently talked about EarthFair’s evolution and her top suggestions for how San Diegans can be more eco-conscious. Here is an edited version of that conversation:

Q: How did you become involved with EarthFair?

A: I found a group organizing a 1990 fair to mark the 20th anniversary of Earth Day. I saw the media plan and saw there was sufficient media to do a big project. Because I was a new volunteer, I had a lot of time to dedicate to it.

Q: What was your background before then?

A: I graduated from (the University of California San Diego) in computer science and music. Working in the computer industry, I had my own company for awhile. I have that entrepreneurial bent. My husband had sold his business, and that’s when I had time to volunteer in the environment. He semiretired to do EarthFair.

Q: What inspires you to focus on the environment?

A: My parents took me camping as a kid, and I did a weeklong high school program in Yosemite. I always loved to see waterfalls and nature and animals. My parents always recycled. ... I’ve always been about waste reduction and efficiency. When you run a small business, you have to reduce waste.

Q: What are your current worries about the environment?

A: We introduce waste into our product designs and into our lives. After World War II, the convenience industry came in and introduced plastics. They were not required to be recycled and now we have floating seas of plastic in the Pacific Ocean.

Personally, I think it’s going to be a terrible shame for kids to grow up on this planet without wildlife. It’s pretty obvious that tigers, rhinos, these large mammals aren’t going to survive this century. ... We should work to protect nature. I don’t want to protect it for its use. I want to protect it for its existence.

Q: What specific eco-friendly actions can people take in their daily lives?

A: Know who your elected officials are and contact them about environmental issues. Join groups like the Sierra Club. I think political activism is essential for solving most environmental problems because there’s only so much that individual action can do.

Become aware of how you use energy because that saves money, too. Whenever you can reduce waste, that saves you dollars. The savings stuff is mostly common sense and people know how to do it.

Consider an electric car or ride a bicycle if you can. Pick a nonprofit group you want to work with locally that inspires you the most. Connect with what you care about and get involved with that. Give what you can, whether it’s time or money.

Q: What’s the main idea behind EarthFair?

A: It’s one-stop shopping for the environment, and we invite people to find out what’s the best fit for them in volunteering for environmental causes. EarthFair is a great place for people to test things. We’ve also seen a real rise in small green businesses since the recession, from community-supported agriculture to green cleaning businesses.

No one thing is going to solve environmental problems, but the mix of everyone thinking about it and doing what they can adds up.

Q: What environmental trends are you seeing this year for the fair?

A: The biggest trend is upcycling — artists and designers turning recycled materials into fashions and jewelry. They’re also turning old food-storage containers into rain barrels.

Q: What activities does this Sunday’s event have for children?

A: There’s the Children’s Earth Parade at 10:30 a.m. We have kids’ eco-friendly crafts. We will have a build-a-bug play area, bird-feeder pine cones with peanut butter and a children’s garden group where they’ll be planting seeds and digging for bugs.